Karen B. Westerfield Tucker, Ph.D. (University of Notre Dame)

Professor of Worship at the Boston University School of Theology (Boston, Massachusetts, USA).

Karen B. Westerfield Tucker is a United Methodist elder (presbyter) affiliated with the Illinois Great Rivers Conference. She served a congregation in Rock Island, Illinois, and the Wesley Foundation at the University of Illinois (U-C) before pursuing the doctorate in liturgical studies at the University of Notre Dame. She was on the faculty at Duke University for fifteen years, and has been at the Boston University School of Theology since 2004. She has taught seminary and continuing education courses throughout the United States and Canada, and in Asia, Pacifica, and Europe.

A member of the World Methodist Council since 1996, from 1996-2006 she served as chairperson of the Council’s Committee on Worship and Liturgy, and from 2006-2022 was a member of the Joint Commission for Dialogue between the World Methodist Council and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (co-secretary 2011-2022). She is a past president of the ecumenical and international Societas Liturgica, and for nine years was the editor-in-chief of the society’s journal Studia Liturgica. In January 2023, she received the Berakah Award from the North American Academy of Liturgy for distinguished service to the field of liturgical studies.

Her research interests include North American liturgical history and theology, Methodist/Wesleyan liturgical history and theology, liturgy and pastoral care, ecumenism, and hymnody. She is the author of American Methodist Worship (Oxford University Press, 2001), the editor of The Sunday Service of the Methodists: Twentieth-Century Worship in Worldwide Methodism (Abingdon/Kingswood, 1996), and is co-editor with Geoffrey Wainwright of The Oxford History of Christian Worship (Oxford University Press, 2006). She is currently finishing a critical study of Wesley’s liturgical materials and prayers to appear as volume 8 of The Works of John Wesley (Abingdon Press).

Selected Recent Chapters and Articles

“Another Look at the Methodist/Wesleyan Love Feast: Introduction, Reception, Adaptation, and Emerging Possibilities.” Wesley and Methodist Studies 15.2 (forthcoming).

“Baptism and Ecumenism: Towards a Sacramental Bond of Unity.” In New Life in the Risen Christ: A Wesleyan Theology of Baptism, ed. Jonathan Powers. Eugene, OR: Cascade/Wipf & Stock (forthcoming).

(With Geoffrey Wainwright.) “The Lord’s Supper according to the Methodist Orders.” In Sacrum Convivium: Die Eucharistiegebete der Westlichen Kirchen im 20. und frühen 21. Jahrhundert, vol. 1, ed. Irmgard Pahl and Stefan Böntert, 365-418. Spicilegium Friburgense, 49. Münster: Aschendorff, 2021.

“Liturgy.” In The Oxford Handbook of Ecumenical Studies, ed. Geoffrey Wainwright and Paul McPartlan, 291-307. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.

“‘Shew Us Thy Salvation’: Charles Wesley and the Liturgical Year.” Wesley and Methodist Studies 11.2 (2019): 166-91.

“Evangelical Anglican Hymnists.” In Hymns and Hymnody: Historical and Theological Introductions, vol. 2, ed. Benjamin K. Forrest, Mark A. Lamport, and Vernon M. Whaley, 240-53. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2019.

“Journeying Together: Pope Francis and the International Roman Catholic and World Methodist Bilateral.” Liturgy 33.2 (2018): 46-53.

“‘Wesleyan’? ‘Wesleyan Tradition’? Worship and Liturgical Practices among the Spiritual Descendants of John and Charles Wesley.” Wesleyan Theological Journal 53.2 (Fall 2018): 30-53.

“‘Through the Church the Song Goes On’: Ecumenical Implications of Singing Together.” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 53.2 (Spring 2018): 245-61.

“Foreword.” In Holy Fire Fell: A History of Worship, Revivals, and Feasts in the Church of the Nazarene, by Dirk R. Ellis, ix-xi. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2016.

“Eucharist and Ecumenism.” In A Wesleyan Theology of the Eucharist: The Presence of God for Christian Life and Ministry, ed. Jason E. Vickers, 273-90. Nashville: Foundery Books, 2016.

“The Great Thanksgivings of the United Methodist Church: Anaphoral Construction and Reception.” In Gemeinschaft im Danken: Grundfragen der Eucharistiefeier im ökumenischen Gespräch, ed. Stefan Böntert, pp. 222-237. Studien zur Pastoralliturgie 40. Regensburg: Pustet, 2015.

“Sacraments and Life-Cycle Rituals.” In The Cambridge Companion to American Methodism, ed. Jason E. Vickers, pp. 138-155. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

“Methodist Liturgy and Worship.” In The Ashgate Research Companion to World Methodism, ed. William Gibson, Peter Forsaith, and Martin Wellings, 269-87. Farnham, Surry and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2013.

“Methodism’s ‘World Parish’: Liturgical and Hymnological Migrations in Three Ecclesiastical Generations.” In Liturgy in Migration: From the Upper Room to Cyberspace, ed. Teresa M. Berger, 131-54. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2012.

“Baptism and Ecumenism: Agreements and Problems on the Journey Towards Mutual Recognition. Presidential Address.” Studia Liturgica 42 (2012) 1-12.

“The Place of Scripture in Worship.” In Wesley, Wesleyans, and Reading Bible as Scripture, ed. Joel B. Green and David F. Watson, 227-43. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2012.

“North American Methodism’s Engagement with Liturgical Renewal.” Liturgy 26.4 (2011) 57-66.

“Methodist Worship.” In T & T Clark Companion to Methodism, ed. Charles Yrigoyen, Jr., 240-56. London and New York: T & T Clark, 2010.

“The Collect in the United Methodist Church and its Antecedents.” In The Collect in the Churches of the Reformation, ed. Bridget Nichols, 83-105. SCM Studies in Worship and Liturgy. London: SCM, 2010.

“Wesley’s Emphases on Worship and the Means of Grace.” In The Cambridge Companion to John Wesley, ed. Randy L. Maddox and Jason E. Vickers, 225-41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.